New to the game, i have a battery ?

[Ekytrader]

I'm new to the game and I'm learning slowly. Here's my ?. If I buy 2 Battleborn 12v 100ah batteries for roughly 1800 and then buy the other components to DIY my solar set up which I'm figuring roughly $2400-2600 total. I know this is more expensive than the AC 200 but Cheaper than the Titan. Which would be better and have the most power. My DIY or the AC 200 or maybe even a Titan with just one battery. How do you calculate the storage.

 

[HiLisa]

Love your question! Was wondering the same thing (as I’m forced to wait til end of Dec ? for the AC200)

 

[Ekytrader]

Is that when your AC 200 is set to come in? How would a person go about buying one. I read somewhere that after the first of the year that Bluetti is coming out with a 3500ah unit. Anybody else read or heard this? I guess so that they can compete with the Titan. But Titan is coming out with a much bigger unit as well after the first of the year.

 

[HiLisa]

Is that when your AC 200 is set to come in? How would a person go about buying one. I read somewhere that after the first of the year that Bluetti is coming out with a 3500ah unit. Anybody else read or heard this? I guess so that they can compete with the Titan. But Titan is coming out with a much bigger unit as well after the first of the year.

I bought the BluettiAC200 on Indiegogo In August with a October delivery date that has been pushed back to end of December. If I could cancel and get my money back, I would. I don’t have a back up generator at moment if any kind and feeling panicky.

 

[Ekytrader]

Well I was really fired up to get one but from what I'm gathering on what little I know that a DIY SYSTEM is much more powerful and will prob last longer.

 

[chrisski]

I really think you need to find out your expected consumption rates and plan from there. If you want to do something like a already made solar power generator, need to really look at the specs. THey don’t make a lot of power so see if that work for you. One thing that steered me away from that direction is the ones I looked at are limited in the amount of 12 volt panels that can hook into it, either one or two panels.

Most places you can expect 4 solar hours of charging, which in my case in Arizona is my long sunny days because the sun doesn’t deliver full power to my panel because the angles move as the sun moves, so with 200 watts of panels hooked up, I can expect to put 800 watt hours of energy back into it. That is not a lot of energy at all. Some of the units I looked at were 1KWH, so if I plugged it in all day, I could get 800 watt hours overnight. That is, I could watch TV for 2 to 4 hours.

I didn’t want to be limited like that, so I ended up getting a system I’m finishing my phase 1, where I can charge it with 600 watts of roof mounted panels. Phase 2 is adding 400 watts of ground panels, and phase 3 will be 300 more watts of roof mounted panels.

As I’m browsing a site on the Bluetooth AC200, seems my system I’m installing myself will be cheaper than the AC200 plus four of their solar panels, and an AC charging cord. I will have 5200 WH of lead acid batteries, which I can use 2600 WH per day.

 

[Ekytrader]

Well you obviously know much more than I do but from everything I have read and watched they have all recommended staying away from lead acid because of the 50% DOD. I can def see where someone could save a fortune from having to buy Lithium Ion Phosphate at 8-900 bucks a piece but can they hold up and what is the average life cycle of a lead acid system?

 

[snoobler]

chrisski is correct (BTW, didn't realize you were in AZ too), and how you plan to use your system matters more than anything. If you want to run twice as much as they can supply , DIY or AC200 won't do it for you. You must define your need and then build/buy a system to meet that need.

AC200 has 1700Wh of battery capacity.

Each BB has 12.8V * 100Ah = 1280Wh, so 2 would have 2560Wh, or about 50% more capacity than the AC200.

 

[Ekytrader]

Ok this is what I need. Me and my wife both use Cpap machines at night and we sleep with a fan as well. From everything I read according to their specs the AC 200 SHOULD EASILY RUN both cpap machines and a small fan for 8 hrs. So my logic is this. Why not just do a DIY Solar Generator that is much bigger than the AC 200. That way we would never have an issue. I am planning on buying 12 100watt solar panels and a 2500-3000 Pure since wave inverter and several batteries of some brand. Plus all the other components needed to complete my solar generator. I mean using this logic I think I should be fine. Right?

 

[dirtybobby423]

Well you obviously know much more than I do but from everything I have read and watched they have all recommended staying away from lead acid because of the 50% DOD. I can def see where someone could save a fortune from having to buy Lithium Ion Phosphate at 8-900 bucks a piece but can they hold up and what is the average life cycle of a lead acid system?

Lithium Phosphate is the way to go, from depth of discharge to number of cycles to cost over time, they win everytime. If you can afford it do it.

 

[chrisski]

Well you obviously know much more than I do but from everything I have read and watched they have all recommended staying away from lead acid because of the 50% DOD. I can def see where someone could save a fortune from having to buy Lithium Ion Phosphate at 8-900 bucks a piece but can they hold up and what is the average life cycle of a lead acid system?

I wouldn't say I know a lot. I'm finishing up my system still, myfirst one. Today I was assembling the Portable Array Circuit Breaker and Combiner.

I still have to wire it, to include the run to the portable panels with Anderson plugs and the trailer with MC4. This whole project is taking up a lot of time, I started studying in March, Purchasing parts in May, and assembling in July. I should be done this month.

There's something to be said about a system like a Bluetti AC200 where it comes from the factory ready to use and don't have to assemble each and every part yourself from scratch. Especially if its emergency back up.

For the lithium batteries, I plan on those when I swap from 12 volt to 24 volt, but I got a whole lot more learning to do before I'm sure that the 6 to 8 lithium I want now for that 24 VDC upgrade is what I really need and not an impulse purchase. These lead acid will last me a couple years. I do think you're right that lithium are the way to go if you know what you need.

 

[snoobler]

Ok this is what I need. Me and my wife both use Cpap machines at night and we sleep with a fan as well. From everything I read according to their specs the AC 200 SHOULD EASILY RUN both cpap machines and a small fan for 8 hrs. So my logic is this. Why not just do a DIY Solar Generator that is much bigger than the AC 200. That way we would never have an issue. I am planning on buying 12 100watt solar panels and a 2500-3000 Pure since wave inverter and several batteries of some brand. Plus all the other components needed to complete my solar generator. I mean using this logic I think I should be fine. Right?

And now we have load data.

40W per CPAP and 60W for a fan. 160W for 8h = 1280kWh, so you'll have some left over with the AC200.